Residential Real Estate Brokers Prepare for Succession

Start early and be prepared for a process that is "incredibly challenging and uncomfortably difficult," says Broker Tom DeWine.

(Boonton, NJ, July 5, 2016) —
Tom DeWine has spent years preparing to take over his
father’s Texas brokerage, yet he still wishes he had
more time.

Call it the curse of succession planning: No matter how
precisely the parties lay out their plans, it’s not
an easy process. As many brokers reach retirement age,
succession planning is a fraught decision, and a common
struggle.

DeWine is president and chief operating officer of ERA
Colonial Real Estate. He plans to assume control of the
company when his father, Dennis DeWine, retires in
2017.

The senior DeWine offers one bit of advice (with the
caveat that it does not apply to him but to other
parent-to-child passings of the mantel): If you plan to
someday give the company to Junior, don’t gripe
openly in the office about the time he got kicked out
of school for smoking pot, or some other teenage
transgression.

"There is often a dynamic of the successor being a
known quantity," DeWine says. "You did something in
high school that was stupid, and everyone heard about
it."

A child taking over a father’s company often has to
work twice as hard to prove himself in the ranks. A
reputation as a spoiled child is something that’s
tough to shed, especially if your company has
long-tenured agents.

"I’ve seen it literally take the legs out of a
succession plan," DeWine says.

More about the DeWines’ experience, as well as data
on falling pay for Realtors, and insights into the
UpstreamRE listing system appear in the July issue of Real
Estate Broker’s Insider.